Myattsfield Vineyards

Construction of the winery began in 2006 and the first crush was in 2007. Husband and wife, Josh and Rachael Davenport, are both winemakers as well as being owners and they were joined by Josh Uren in December 2012.

Myattsfield's philosophy is one of “oneological independence” from typical influences of business economics and so the team has the freedom to pursue winemaking with few constraints. This is demonstrated in the broad variety of wines and the breadth of innovative and old world winemaking practises, which quickly becomes apparent as you poke behind the surface of the cellar door.

One example of their innovation is in the incorporation and evaluation of Ceramic Eggs. I saw the effect of these first hand on my visit, whereby the otherwise identical batches of Vermentino grapes were processed exacly the same prior to being separated into Oak and Ceramic Eggs for maturation. The batch from the Ceramic Eggs displayed a noticable difference, with greater acidity producing a crisp freshness on the palate and, in my opinion, created a more balanced wine.

The best example of using old world techniques is the traditional Spanish solera blending system, established in 2001 with the production of fortified Muscat. Since then the overwhelming majority of the fortified wine added has utilised the Pedro Ximénez grape, along with liqueur Viognier and liqueur Verdelho.